February 18, 2025 • 28 mins
Join animation historian Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein from the Warner Archive as they unfold the rich tapestry behind the Tom and Jerry CinemaScope Collection. Discover the revolutionary role of CinemaScope in the 1950s and how it breathed life into MGM studios amidst turbulent times. We promise you'll gain an understanding of how these iconic cartoons were meticulously restored, leveraging modern technology while preserving their original charm.
Celebrate the 85th anniversary of Tom and Jerry by traversing their cinematic universe. Relish fan-favorite episodes like "Pet Peeve," "Touche, Pussycat," and "The Flying Sorceress," and appreciate their timeless appeal and artistic brilliance. Whether you're an animation aficionado or a nostalgic fan, prepare for an enlightening journey that cherishes the legacy of these beloved characters.
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TOM AND JERRY: The Complete CinemaScope Collection (1954-1958) BLU-RAY
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tim Millard (00:05):
Hi, tim Millard here, host of the Extras podcast
, and today we continue ouranimation discussion with
historian Jerry Beck and GeorgeFeltenstein from the Warner
Archive.
And today we're going to betalking about the Tom and Jerry
CinemaScope collection.
That includes 23 cartoons thatwere released between 1954 and
1958, plus three bonus cartoons.
(00:28):
I think you'll really enjoythis discussion.
There's a lot of goodbackground information on this
release, and then we talk aboutsome of the specific titles on
the release that we all enjoyed.
Well, we have one more releasewe're going to talk about, guys,
and I know a lot of fans havebeen anxiously waiting to hear
our take on this one.
It comes out on February 11th,so we're recording this before
(00:52):
the 11th, but this is the highlyanticipated Tom and Jerry the
Complete Cinema Scope Collection1954 to 58.
I watched all of these cartoonsand this is a fantastic
collection.
I mean no surprise to people,of course, but how did this come
about, george?
George Feltenstein (01:12):
I can't exactly say when I had the idea.
It literally came to me and Ithought, hey, this would be
really cool because it takesadvantage of the fact that
everybody has widescreentelevisions now and people in
animation land really want tokeep that full frame, open mat
(01:37):
aspect ratio for the cartoons,Even those that were made to be
projected at 185 in theaters.
They don't want widescreencartoons, but CinemaScope
cartoons were specifically drawnthat way.
And going back to Jerry and myadventures in Laserdisc land, we
(02:03):
steamrolled through the firstletterbox transfers of the
CinemaScope cartoons forLaserdisc and now, lo, these
many years later, we have aBlu-ray.
What we were able to do is thesemost of these were mastered, I
would say, probably in the last10 or 12 years, probably in the
(02:24):
last 10 or 12 years.
But we put a sizable budgettogether to clean up any film
damage, not to change.
There's no DNR, there's nothingthat gets in the way of the
animation, but we cleaned upfilm damage and we also did some
additional color correctionbecause some of the colors were
not right.
And so we took these what Icall recent masters and made
(02:50):
them look as good as new, Ithink, To be able to put them
all together with a nice bitrate on one Blu-ray disc and add
the three cartoons that Hannahand Barbara made that weren't
Tom and Jerry cartoons was theicing on the cake, and I believe
that was Jerry's idea when wetalked about it.
Jerry Beck (03:12):
Well, I think it was , yeah, a thing we definitely
should have done and we did.
You know I like to be ascomplete and thorough, you know,
whenever we're talking aboutthese things, concocting these
ideas, as we can be.
You know, I figure anybodybuying it, you know, may want to
see that additional thing.
(03:33):
Anyway, yeah, these arefantastic.
Cinemascope we should talkabout that.
That was a revolution in the1950s.
I actually believe this is notbased on any research or
anything, it's just me, I'm justthinking.
I actually believe CinemaScope,and these cartoons in
particular, kept that studioalive for a few more years.
(03:55):
You know, the MGM closed thestudio, I believe, in 1956.
And yeah, well, yeah, in 57.
Well, they released them intoat least 57.
58?
Yeah.
George Feltenstein (04:08):
Kyle Watchers was released in 58.
Jerry Beck (04:11):
That was the last one.
And keep in mind that the firstRough and Ready was on TV in 57
.
So the story goes that theywere given what I call a soft
layoff.
They were told they were goingto close the studio I think in
I'm going to say 55, or it's 56.
I forgot which year, sorry.
(04:31):
And they were given a year towind things down, to do the last
season of cartoons, and you'vegot your office there for 12
more months.
You'll finish the cartoons.
And you know, you've got youroffice there for, you know, 12
more months.
You'll finish the cartoons,you'll do this post-production
and you can use our telephones.
(04:52):
I mean, that was the impressionI got.
But so it was all hunky-doryand nice and you know that was
the end of Tom and Jerry for thetime being.
And of course Hanna-Barbera hadto figure out what they were
going to do next and we all knowthat story.
But I think that MGM might haveclosed earlier.
Disney closed down its shortsunits in the early 50s they
(05:16):
still made shorts, but it wasone or two a year, that kind of
thing.
And I think because of scopeand because there was a need for
scope product for the theaters,this was a reason to keep
making the cartoons.
It's an interesting period aswell because in animation
history, the very beginning ofthese scope cartoons, as one
(05:39):
sees if they watch it I'm sureyou noticed this, tim.
It starts off in the classic,what I call full-spectrum
background artwork and it's justas lavish as any of the primo
1940s cartoons.
But as they go along in thisset they start to pick up that
UPA artistic sensibility whereit's a little more abstract, you
(06:02):
know what I'm saying.
And the characters themselveseven begin to, you know, are
modified in their design as wellas they.
This is what the mode was, thezeitgeist of animation in that
mid-50s period.
That's what represented.
New was that look?
And they wanted to be new, theywanted to be different.
Cinemascope was part of thatbecause they were, of course
(06:23):
fighting television.
Television was the big scourge,the big enemy of the movies.
If you were coming to see amovie, you were going to see an
entertainment you could not seeon TV and to see a widescreen,
fully animated Tom and Jerrycartoon.
I mean, that was just a perfectweapon in the arsenal of MGM in
(06:45):
particular against that thing.
These are just great cartoonsbecause there's scope there,
what I call eye-filling.
The thing I tell my studentswhen I talk about this where I
teach at CalArts is thatCinemaScope back then and George
tell me otherwise, cinemascopeback then was like IMAX today.
(07:07):
It was usually on really largescreens, peripheral vision, I
mean.
They really designed liveaction and animation for the
Scope screen.
It wasn't just here's thecartoon and some extra material
on the left and right.
It was very designed forwidescreen, as many live-action
(07:31):
movies of that time were thatway as well.
George Feltenstein (07:33):
You are 100% correct, as usual, and the
thing is that the CinemaScopetechnology was basically
developed under the aegis of20th century Fox, using a system
of an anamorphic lens thatsqueezed the image onto a
traditional frame and then theprojector would spread it out,
(07:56):
and the early lenses were notthat great, which caused some
focal problems very early on,but they continued to perfect it
and perfect it and CinemaScopewas marketed by Fox as the
miracle, you see, withoutglasses, because of course, it
(08:17):
was preceded by the very brieftenure of 3D and its fad in the
movie industry, and peopledidn't like the glasses and they
didn't like a lot of thingsabout 3D.
But when Fox premiered the Robewhich was not the first
CinemaScope movie filmed, but itwas the first released it was
(08:39):
just an enormous sea change forthe industry and MGM signed a
licensing deal with Fox for thetechnology right away, and
Warner Brothers eventuallyfollowed suit, as did, on
occasion, columbia and Universal.
(09:00):
Paramount developed VistaVision, which we've talked about in
other podcasts and that did notuse a lens that distorted the
image, but rather gave yougreater depth of field, but
everything was about thewidescreen to bring people into
the movie theaters.
It's interesting in terms ofthe timing jerry mentions,
because 1956 was the year thatmost of classic animation hit
(09:27):
television in a big way.
The number one syndicatedtelevision cartoon series were
the Popeye cartoons number one.
And then the pre-'48 WarnerBrothers cartoons, which had
just been sold off they werevery, very popular.
And the Terry Toons that CBShad bought that Terry Toons
(09:51):
animation studio.
All these different cartoonseries were hitting television,
but not Tom and Jerry.
Mgm did not put Tom and Jerryon television until 1965,
Saturday mornings at CBS.
Tom and Jerry were so popular asthey still are today, more
popular internationally than inthe United States, tremendously
(10:15):
popular here but unbelievablypopular overseas because for all
intents and purposes they didnot talk.
So there was the universalhumor of the visuals and the
audio gags that made them sofresh and CinemaScope added a
(10:35):
great deal of dimension.
No pun intended.
The problem with these cartoonsis that when they went on
television they would be pannedand scanned.
They would be panned andscanned, sometimes radically,
when a 4x3 television was thething, or even today where
(11:02):
you've got broadcasters showinga 178 pan and scan of the Scope
cartoons.
It is true that the first fourTom and Jerry Sc scope cartoons
were also made in flat versions.
They were made twice.
Just like MGM made features twoways like Brigadoon, seven
Brides for Seven Brothers, theStudent Prince they were shot
(11:24):
twice, once for CinemaScope andonce for what was called
widescreen, a 1.75 aspect ratiothat matted the top and the
bottom.
They were really tossing thedice on what would last.
Cinemascope proved itsviability and that it wasn't
going to go away.
So MGM didn't feel the need tomake two different versions of
(11:48):
their features or cartoonsanymore and in the meantime it
really like when jerry and I didthe laser discs years ago,
creating letterbox masters ofthese cartoons was unheard of,
you know, because people werestill having their 4x3 TVs.
(12:09):
But we wanted people to seethem the right way.
I also want to clear up a littlebit of a point of confusion,
because the early aspect ratiofor CinemaScope was 2.55 in
order to make room for themagnetic stripe, for the
stereophonic sound, and 20thCentury Fox insisted that if you
(12:33):
wanted CinemaScope you had tohave stereophonic sound.
The early cartoons, thenegatives I had them checked
specifically the cameranegatives are 235, not 255,
which is kind of weird becausethe industry Fox relented on the
(12:57):
aspect ratio and agreed to 235and optical versions like a year
later.
So how the cartoons ended upbeing 235 before Fox had blessed
it is a little bit of a strangeanomaly, and we don't have
documentation that explains that.
(13:17):
All I can do is tell you thatour people brought in the camera
negatives and looked at themvery recently so that I would be
able to speak with truth towhat the proper aspect ratios of
these cartoons are supposed tobe.
And they are two, three, five,and there really is no
(13:44):
explanation as to why there'sthat dichotomy.
Maybe someday I'll find a memoin the files that will explain
it.
But I'm very pleased with theway these turned out there.
It's a beautiful, veryentertaining, fun disc.
It's also a great value becauseyou're paying less than a
dollar a cartoon.
(14:04):
So we think it's a really cutepackage.
It's got lovely artwork and Ijust hope people will really,
really enjoy it.
And a lot of times we're kindof against the gun trying to
make our dates and trying to getthe screening copies out.
This was one case where wereally had a long lead time so
(14:27):
that reviewers have their copiesand as we record this, we're
still a week before street date.
So that's really the idealsituation.
That's what I'm used to and I'mhoping we can get back to that
again.
This gives me an opportunityalso to take a moment to
acknowledge that things aroundhere got a little hot.
(14:49):
I'm not trying to be funnyabout it.
The fires literally put ourstudio to a stop for two weeks.
People were working remotelyand many of my colleagues lost
their homes.
Many more of my colleagues hadto evacuate, including Jerry,
(15:12):
and I was in an area that isknown to be a fire zone.
So, even though we were notdirectly affected, there was
always that fear that a matchcould strike or somebody throw
out a cigarette button.
God knows what would happen.
We're coming out of this tragedyfor this area, but it created a
(15:36):
lot of.
It basically brought us to astandstill.
Certain people were able to gethere and do their work, but a
lot of people weren't, and a lotof people needed to stay home
in case they had to evacuatetheir families and their pets,
and so, until it was safe, welost some very important work
(15:59):
time.
So if things get delayed or nothappening as they should be
specifically our new releaseannouncements, which I'm hoping
by the time this podcast goeslive, we'll have some new
release announcements to sharewith everyone.
But it's just a very heartfeltrequest to everyone to
(16:22):
understand the circumstancesunder which we were operating
and we are in the pink to beback on track as soon as
possible.
Tim Millard (16:35):
Just to get back to the Tom and Jerry release,
george, there were a couple ofthings I wanted to add to the
topic.
One, jerry, you mentioned theIMAX element of it was the IMAX
of its day, maybe, or somethingalong those lines.
A younger person and you aren'tsure about these.
(16:59):
Keep that in mind.
This is a different experience.
When you put this Blu-ray inand you see it on your
widescreen, it feels more modern.
Just simply for that fact, itfeels like wow, this is a
fantastic experience of watchingclassic cartoons, fantastic
(17:21):
experience of watching classiccartoons full screen, like that,
and I thought that was a keypoint that we needed to put out
there for fans who maybe are notas familiar with these cartoons
.
And so they're beautiful, theysound great and they're a lot of
fun.
I had a few that I thought werereally worth going into to talk
(17:42):
about a little bit more, that Ithought maybe we could just
point to for a few examples ofhow fantastic these are, I'd
like to get your guys' take onthem, but you start right off
with Pet Peeve and that's just afantastic way to start.
But is it just because it wasthe first one that was released,
(18:03):
george?
George Feltenstein (18:03):
Yeah, it's as simple as that.
Jerry Beck (18:07):
They're in the order they were released.
Yeah, yeah.
Tim Millard (18:10):
Yeah, so it's a, it's from the from the get go.
It just starts off so much funand then immediately you go into
the second one and you've gotTouche Pussycat, which is an
Oscar nominee right.
George Feltenstein (18:22):
Yeah.
Jerry Beck (18:23):
Yeah, that's something them trying something
new.
I believe it was even a sequelto a previous cartoon where they
just tried to put Tom and Jerryin different locations and
things like that, and this onebeing in old France, you know
lends itself visually to thecinemascope and widescreen and I
(18:47):
think they had a lot of funwith that in particular.
Tim Millard (18:49):
Well, you were talking about the international
appeal and this one, basicallythe whole thing's in French.
You know even the spokenlanguage elements of it, so that
makes it feel reallyinternational in that sense.
And then you have another onethere, tom and Cherie, which am
I right that that was the firstkind of exclusive Cinemascope
(19:13):
release?
George Feltenstein (19:13):
There was, no, there wasn't a flat version
made.
Jerry Beck (19:17):
Yeah, so that would be the first one.
That's big, yeah, but theyweren't thinking about it like
that.
They made them in scope andthey just offered not every
theater could play that, notevery theater could expand and
put in that screen.
If you were a neighborhoodtheater that had 400 seats your
(19:38):
185 is about as wide as you canget, you know.
And so CinemaScope was reallyspecial back then.
It was really first runtheaters and the big, the old
vaudeville houses and thingslike that.
So that was an attempt to offerit to the nabes, the
neighborhood theaters.
I think by the time they gotinto that next year, more and
(20:00):
more theaters were running scopeand they figured out other
other ways.
Um, you didn't mention inbetween there, you didn't
mention southbound duckling,which I'm only mentioning
because it's right aftertwo-shaped physique.
I always like to point that oneout as one of the few cartoons
where tom wins.
At the end he seems seeminglycaptures.
(20:21):
We don't know what happens, butwe see him capturing Jerry and
the little.
This is the duckling, yeah, inthat one.
So I find that to be somethingto point out to the, to those
who say it's like people arealways asking about the
roadrunner Does the coyote evercatch, you know?
Well, not really, but here's arare case where he actually is
(20:43):
getting them.
Tim Millard (20:44):
Well, I also really enjoyed the Flying Sorceress.
Jerry Beck (20:48):
I was hoping you were going to mention that one.
Yeah, with June Frey.
Yeah, june Frey is the voiceand it really uses the scope
screen in that one, more thaneven others, in my opinion,
because she's flying all overthe screen.
I mean, I, I've actually seenthat one in a theater.
In fact, we ran that one whenwe did a tribute to june after
she passed away.
(21:08):
We purposely ran that onebecause, uh, it's her doing that
classic witch hazel voice, butalso, um, uh, the fact that the
character is just all over theplace on that big screen.
It really looks cool.
Tim Millard (21:21):
Yeah, and then I really really enjoyed Blue Cat
Blues, oh yeah.
George Feltenstein (21:27):
That's a very different kind of cartoon.
Tim Millard (21:30):
Yeah, tom is the lovesick cat and Jerry is trying
to help him.
I mean, instead of the chase,you know, it just changes it up
there.
I thought that one wasfantastic.
George Feltenstein (21:41):
It added a whole other dimension to their
relationship, which I think wasvery smart of them.
Jerry Beck (21:47):
Yeah, I mean.
The thing is a lot of peoplestereotype Tom and Jerry
cartoons.
Oh yeah, the cat chases themouse, and that's really a lot
of people think that's everysingle cartoon.
There is one cartoon early,early on called Kitty Foil.
That is literally them chasingeach other for seven minutes.
That's it.
But every other one has someunique angle to it, usually a
(22:10):
story, and sometimes the storiesare bigger than that.
Whether it's Mouse in Manhattanor you know, all of them have
some unique take on them andthat's what I think also
especially makes a collection ofthem work.
They didn't design them forbeing in a collection, but they
really do work that way.
Tim Millard (22:30):
Yeah, and maybe a little bit more in the
traditional.
You know Tom chasing, jerry ismucho más, but I really enjoyed
that one I love.
Jerry is el magnifico.
I really enjoyed that one Jerryis El Magnifico.
Jerry Beck (22:42):
It's the Spanish one , yeah.
Tim Millard (22:44):
Tom, is this world champ that is brought in to
capture that one I thought wasreally fun because it's the
whole Spanish element of it too.
Jerry Beck (22:52):
That one has particularly good backgrounds in
it.
It's showing off thecountryside.
It's almost like they sent thedesigner to Spain to take
portraits and things.
It's a very beautiful lookingfilm.
Tim Millard (23:07):
Did you guys have any other favorites that you
wanted to point out?
Jerry Beck (23:10):
Oh gosh, I'm a guy who just likes everything.
I'm interested.
I love those later ones.
I don't even think the seriesever went really downhill.
There was no jumping the sharkhere.
The later, later ones have, themore're really the characters
are front and center.
They're close up.
It's all dialogue to look atthis beautiful landscape, these
(23:31):
beautiful places that they are.
And even when they're stylized,they're smart.
(24:03):
I call it smart, stylized.
It's like modern art.
It looks great.
Tim Millard (24:08):
Yeah, how about you George?
George Feltenstein (24:11):
I'm with Jerry.
I mean I, you know it's likewhich of your children do you
love the most?
You know I mean they are.
They're to be treasured becausethey represent a time and a
place that we'll never see again, just like with live action
features.
Um, you know mgm was mgm andtheir cartoon department was
(24:34):
just like.
The rest of their studio isawesome.
And you know we've talkedendlessly about tech, savory,
and we'll continue to do so andwhat Bill and Joe did with Tom
and Jerry.
At the same time, thesecartoons last forever and
they're really to be admired andadored and have a place on your
shelf that you can watchwhenever you want, Won't
(24:57):
suddenly disappear one day.
Tim Millard (24:59):
And your three bonus cartoons I thought were
just fantastic, and the Goodwillto Men speaking of lasting
forever, and I mean it's a themethat is timeless.
George Feltenstein (25:11):
Well, goodwill to Men.
As animation fans know, isactually a remake of the 1939
cartoon piece on earth which wasdone by Hugh Harmon on the, you
know, precipice of world wartwo, and Bill and Joe updated it
(25:32):
, reanimated it and brought inthe whole threat of nuclear
catastrophe, which makes it allthe more chilling and
frightening.
Especially many years later,it's still as powerful as ever.
Tim Millard (25:49):
Yeah, well, it's a fantastic collection.
I want to thank you two forpulling this together for the
fans, and I've started to seesome of the reviews and they're
coming in and they're all sayingthe same thing of how fantastic
these look and, you know, maybelike wow, this seems so obvious
.
Why didn't we do it earlier?
But it's like when you getthose releases, it means that
(26:13):
it's like touching a chord withpeople like, yes, this is a
really good one and one thatpeople I think really are going
to want to add to theircollection, because there it is,
it's so packaged so well in onedisc at a great price, as you
mentioned, george.
So I think fans are going toreally, really enjoy this.
(26:33):
Well, guys, that was a lot ofanimation to talk about.
Yeah, it's just the beginning.
Well worth it.
Yeah, but it's just thebeginning of the year.
So, uh, I know there's a lotmore.
You've mentioned, george, thatuh still coming this year.
You mentioned last year thatyou two are working on more
looney tunes that the fans haveto look forward to, and I know
(26:54):
that probably won't be too longbefore we'll hopefully have a
chance to talk with you guysabout that.
So, listeners out there, pickup these Blu-rays, because you
need to prepare yourself for theBlu-rays you're going to be
picking up in another month ortwo as well, and just enjoy
these.
They are fantastic.
(27:15):
So thanks, guys.
George Feltenstein (27:17):
Well, thank you, tim.
It's a pleasure to be with you,as always, and to be able to
talk to the folks about whatwe're cooking up.
Yes, well.
Tim Millard (27:32):
I hope you enjoyed that discussion with Jerry Beck
and George Feltenstein.
I always enjoy when they're on.
I learned so much aboutanimation history and all the
work that went into therestoration of these terrific
cartoons, these terrific shortfilms that were made for adults
and have been enjoyed for solong.
And this is the 85thanniversary of Tom and Jerry, so
(27:52):
it's a terrific time for us tobe celebrating these releases.
If you haven't yet picked upyour copy, be sure and look in
the podcast show notes for thelink, and you can purchase that
today.
If you're enjoying the podcast,please think about subscribing
or following at your favoritepodcast provider.
Until next time you've beenlistening to Tim Millard, stay
(28:14):
slightly obsessed aboutanimation.
Hi, tim Millard here, host of the Extras podcast
, and today we continue ouranimation discussion with
historian Jerry Beck and GeorgeFeltenstein from the Warner
Archive.
And today we're going to betalking about the Tom and Jerry
CinemaScope collection.
That includes 23 cartoons thatwere released between 1954 and
1958, plus three bonus cartoons.
(00:28):
I think you'll really enjoythis discussion.
There's a lot of goodbackground information on this
release, and then we talk aboutsome of the specific titles on
the release that we all enjoyed.
Well, we have one more releasewe're going to talk about, guys,
and I know a lot of fans havebeen anxiously waiting to hear
our take on this one.
It comes out on February 11th,so we're recording this before
(00:52):
the 11th, but this is the highlyanticipated Tom and Jerry the
Complete Cinema Scope Collection1954 to 58.
I watched all of these cartoonsand this is a fantastic
collection.
I mean no surprise to people,of course, but how did this come
about, george?
George Feltenstein (01:12):
I can't exactly say when I had the idea.
It literally came to me and Ithought, hey, this would be
really cool because it takesadvantage of the fact that
everybody has widescreentelevisions now and people in
animation land really want tokeep that full frame, open mat
(01:37):
aspect ratio for the cartoons,Even those that were made to be
projected at 185 in theaters.
They don't want widescreencartoons, but CinemaScope
cartoons were specifically drawnthat way.
And going back to Jerry and myadventures in Laserdisc land, we
(02:03):
steamrolled through the firstletterbox transfers of the
CinemaScope cartoons forLaserdisc and now, lo, these
many years later, we have aBlu-ray.
What we were able to do is thesemost of these were mastered, I
would say, probably in the last10 or 12 years, probably in the
(02:24):
last 10 or 12 years.
But we put a sizable budgettogether to clean up any film
damage, not to change.
There's no DNR, there's nothingthat gets in the way of the
animation, but we cleaned upfilm damage and we also did some
additional color correctionbecause some of the colors were
not right.
And so we took these what Icall recent masters and made
(02:50):
them look as good as new, Ithink, To be able to put them
all together with a nice bitrate on one Blu-ray disc and add
the three cartoons that Hannahand Barbara made that weren't
Tom and Jerry cartoons was theicing on the cake, and I believe
that was Jerry's idea when wetalked about it.
Jerry Beck (03:12):
Well, I think it was , yeah, a thing we definitely
should have done and we did.
You know I like to be ascomplete and thorough, you know,
whenever we're talking aboutthese things, concocting these
ideas, as we can be.
You know, I figure anybodybuying it, you know, may want to
see that additional thing.
(03:33):
Anyway, yeah, these arefantastic.
Cinemascope we should talkabout that.
That was a revolution in the1950s.
I actually believe this is notbased on any research or
anything, it's just me, I'm justthinking.
I actually believe CinemaScope,and these cartoons in
particular, kept that studioalive for a few more years.
(03:55):
You know, the MGM closed thestudio, I believe, in 1956.
And yeah, well, yeah, in 57.
Well, they released them intoat least 57.
58?
Yeah.
George Feltenstein (04:08):
Kyle Watchers was released in 58.
Jerry Beck (04:11):
That was the last one.
And keep in mind that the firstRough and Ready was on TV in 57
.
So the story goes that theywere given what I call a soft
layoff.
They were told they were goingto close the studio I think in
I'm going to say 55, or it's 56.
I forgot which year, sorry.
(04:31):
And they were given a year towind things down, to do the last
season of cartoons, and you'vegot your office there for 12
more months.
You'll finish the cartoons.
And you know, you've got youroffice there for, you know, 12
more months.
You'll finish the cartoons,you'll do this post-production
and you can use our telephones.
(04:52):
I mean, that was the impressionI got.
But so it was all hunky-doryand nice and you know that was
the end of Tom and Jerry for thetime being.
And of course Hanna-Barbera hadto figure out what they were
going to do next and we all knowthat story.
But I think that MGM might haveclosed earlier.
Disney closed down its shortsunits in the early 50s they
(05:16):
still made shorts, but it wasone or two a year, that kind of
thing.
And I think because of scopeand because there was a need for
scope product for the theaters,this was a reason to keep
making the cartoons.
It's an interesting period aswell because in animation
history, the very beginning ofthese scope cartoons, as one
(05:39):
sees if they watch it I'm sureyou noticed this, tim.
It starts off in the classic,what I call full-spectrum
background artwork and it's justas lavish as any of the primo
1940s cartoons.
But as they go along in thisset they start to pick up that
UPA artistic sensibility whereit's a little more abstract, you
(06:02):
know what I'm saying.
And the characters themselveseven begin to, you know, are
modified in their design as wellas they.
This is what the mode was, thezeitgeist of animation in that
mid-50s period.
That's what represented.
New was that look?
And they wanted to be new, theywanted to be different.
Cinemascope was part of thatbecause they were, of course
(06:23):
fighting television.
Television was the big scourge,the big enemy of the movies.
If you were coming to see amovie, you were going to see an
entertainment you could not seeon TV and to see a widescreen,
fully animated Tom and Jerrycartoon.
I mean, that was just a perfectweapon in the arsenal of MGM in
(06:45):
particular against that thing.
These are just great cartoonsbecause there's scope there,
what I call eye-filling.
The thing I tell my studentswhen I talk about this where I
teach at CalArts is thatCinemaScope back then and George
tell me otherwise, cinemascopeback then was like IMAX today.
(07:07):
It was usually on really largescreens, peripheral vision, I
mean.
They really designed liveaction and animation for the
Scope screen.
It wasn't just here's thecartoon and some extra material
on the left and right.
It was very designed forwidescreen, as many live-action
(07:31):
movies of that time were thatway as well.
George Feltenstein (07:33):
You are 100% correct, as usual, and the
thing is that the CinemaScopetechnology was basically
developed under the aegis of20th century Fox, using a system
of an anamorphic lens thatsqueezed the image onto a
traditional frame and then theprojector would spread it out,
(07:56):
and the early lenses were notthat great, which caused some
focal problems very early on,but they continued to perfect it
and perfect it and CinemaScopewas marketed by Fox as the
miracle, you see, withoutglasses, because of course, it
(08:17):
was preceded by the very brieftenure of 3D and its fad in the
movie industry, and peopledidn't like the glasses and they
didn't like a lot of thingsabout 3D.
But when Fox premiered the Robewhich was not the first
CinemaScope movie filmed, but itwas the first released it was
(08:39):
just an enormous sea change forthe industry and MGM signed a
licensing deal with Fox for thetechnology right away, and
Warner Brothers eventuallyfollowed suit, as did, on
occasion, columbia and Universal.
(09:00):
Paramount developed VistaVision, which we've talked about in
other podcasts and that did notuse a lens that distorted the
image, but rather gave yougreater depth of field, but
everything was about thewidescreen to bring people into
the movie theaters.
It's interesting in terms ofthe timing jerry mentions,
because 1956 was the year thatmost of classic animation hit
(09:27):
television in a big way.
The number one syndicatedtelevision cartoon series were
the Popeye cartoons number one.
And then the pre-'48 WarnerBrothers cartoons, which had
just been sold off they werevery, very popular.
And the Terry Toons that CBShad bought that Terry Toons
(09:51):
animation studio.
All these different cartoonseries were hitting television,
but not Tom and Jerry.
Mgm did not put Tom and Jerryon television until 1965,
Saturday mornings at CBS.
Tom and Jerry were so popular asthey still are today, more
popular internationally than inthe United States, tremendously
(10:15):
popular here but unbelievablypopular overseas because for all
intents and purposes they didnot talk.
So there was the universalhumor of the visuals and the
audio gags that made them sofresh and CinemaScope added a
(10:35):
great deal of dimension.
No pun intended.
The problem with these cartoonsis that when they went on
television they would be pannedand scanned.
They would be panned andscanned, sometimes radically,
when a 4x3 television was thething, or even today where
(11:02):
you've got broadcasters showinga 178 pan and scan of the Scope
cartoons.
It is true that the first fourTom and Jerry Sc scope cartoons
were also made in flat versions.
They were made twice.
Just like MGM made features twoways like Brigadoon, seven
Brides for Seven Brothers, theStudent Prince they were shot
(11:24):
twice, once for CinemaScope andonce for what was called
widescreen, a 1.75 aspect ratiothat matted the top and the
bottom.
They were really tossing thedice on what would last.
Cinemascope proved itsviability and that it wasn't
going to go away.
So MGM didn't feel the need tomake two different versions of
(11:48):
their features or cartoonsanymore and in the meantime it
really like when jerry and I didthe laser discs years ago,
creating letterbox masters ofthese cartoons was unheard of,
you know, because people werestill having their 4x3 TVs.
(12:09):
But we wanted people to seethem the right way.
I also want to clear up a littlebit of a point of confusion,
because the early aspect ratiofor CinemaScope was 2.55 in
order to make room for themagnetic stripe, for the
stereophonic sound, and 20thCentury Fox insisted that if you
(12:33):
wanted CinemaScope you had tohave stereophonic sound.
The early cartoons, thenegatives I had them checked
specifically the cameranegatives are 235, not 255,
which is kind of weird becausethe industry Fox relented on the
(12:57):
aspect ratio and agreed to 235and optical versions like a year
later.
So how the cartoons ended upbeing 235 before Fox had blessed
it is a little bit of a strangeanomaly, and we don't have
documentation that explains that.
(13:17):
All I can do is tell you thatour people brought in the camera
negatives and looked at themvery recently so that I would be
able to speak with truth towhat the proper aspect ratios of
these cartoons are supposed tobe.
And they are two, three, five,and there really is no
(13:44):
explanation as to why there'sthat dichotomy.
Maybe someday I'll find a memoin the files that will explain
it.
But I'm very pleased with theway these turned out there.
It's a beautiful, veryentertaining, fun disc.
It's also a great value becauseyou're paying less than a
dollar a cartoon.
(14:04):
So we think it's a really cutepackage.
It's got lovely artwork and Ijust hope people will really,
really enjoy it.
And a lot of times we're kindof against the gun trying to
make our dates and trying to getthe screening copies out.
This was one case where wereally had a long lead time so
(14:27):
that reviewers have their copiesand as we record this, we're
still a week before street date.
So that's really the idealsituation.
That's what I'm used to and I'mhoping we can get back to that
again.
This gives me an opportunityalso to take a moment to
acknowledge that things aroundhere got a little hot.
(14:49):
I'm not trying to be funnyabout it.
The fires literally put ourstudio to a stop for two weeks.
People were working remotelyand many of my colleagues lost
their homes.
Many more of my colleagues hadto evacuate, including Jerry,
(15:12):
and I was in an area that isknown to be a fire zone.
So, even though we were notdirectly affected, there was
always that fear that a matchcould strike or somebody throw
out a cigarette button.
God knows what would happen.
We're coming out of this tragedyfor this area, but it created a
(15:36):
lot of.
It basically brought us to astandstill.
Certain people were able to gethere and do their work, but a
lot of people weren't, and a lotof people needed to stay home
in case they had to evacuatetheir families and their pets,
and so, until it was safe, welost some very important work
(15:59):
time.
So if things get delayed or nothappening as they should be
specifically our new releaseannouncements, which I'm hoping
by the time this podcast goeslive, we'll have some new
release announcements to sharewith everyone.
But it's just a very heartfeltrequest to everyone to
(16:22):
understand the circumstancesunder which we were operating
and we are in the pink to beback on track as soon as
possible.
Tim Millard (16:35):
Just to get back to the Tom and Jerry release,
george, there were a couple ofthings I wanted to add to the
topic.
One, jerry, you mentioned theIMAX element of it was the IMAX
of its day, maybe, or somethingalong those lines.
A younger person and you aren'tsure about these.
(16:59):
Keep that in mind.
This is a different experience.
When you put this Blu-ray inand you see it on your
widescreen, it feels more modern.
Just simply for that fact, itfeels like wow, this is a
fantastic experience of watchingclassic cartoons, fantastic
(17:21):
experience of watching classiccartoons full screen, like that,
and I thought that was a keypoint that we needed to put out
there for fans who maybe are notas familiar with these cartoons
.
And so they're beautiful, theysound great and they're a lot of
fun.
I had a few that I thought werereally worth going into to talk
(17:42):
about a little bit more, that Ithought maybe we could just
point to for a few examples ofhow fantastic these are, I'd
like to get your guys' take onthem, but you start right off
with Pet Peeve and that's just afantastic way to start.
But is it just because it wasthe first one that was released,
(18:03):
george?
George Feltenstein (18:03):
Yeah, it's as simple as that.
Jerry Beck (18:07):
They're in the order they were released.
Yeah, yeah.
Tim Millard (18:10):
Yeah, so it's a, it's from the from the get go.
It just starts off so much funand then immediately you go into
the second one and you've gotTouche Pussycat, which is an
Oscar nominee right.
George Feltenstein (18:22):
Yeah.
Jerry Beck (18:23):
Yeah, that's something them trying something
new.
I believe it was even a sequelto a previous cartoon where they
just tried to put Tom and Jerryin different locations and
things like that, and this onebeing in old France, you know
lends itself visually to thecinemascope and widescreen and I
(18:47):
think they had a lot of funwith that in particular.
Tim Millard (18:49):
Well, you were talking about the international
appeal and this one, basicallythe whole thing's in French.
You know even the spokenlanguage elements of it, so that
makes it feel reallyinternational in that sense.
And then you have another onethere, tom and Cherie, which am
I right that that was the firstkind of exclusive Cinemascope
(19:13):
release?
George Feltenstein (19:13):
There was, no, there wasn't a flat version
made.
Jerry Beck (19:17):
Yeah, so that would be the first one.
That's big, yeah, but theyweren't thinking about it like
that.
They made them in scope andthey just offered not every
theater could play that, notevery theater could expand and
put in that screen.
If you were a neighborhoodtheater that had 400 seats your
(19:38):
185 is about as wide as you canget, you know.
And so CinemaScope was reallyspecial back then.
It was really first runtheaters and the big, the old
vaudeville houses and thingslike that.
So that was an attempt to offerit to the nabes, the
neighborhood theaters.
I think by the time they gotinto that next year, more and
(20:00):
more theaters were running scopeand they figured out other
other ways.
Um, you didn't mention inbetween there, you didn't
mention southbound duckling,which I'm only mentioning
because it's right aftertwo-shaped physique.
I always like to point that oneout as one of the few cartoons
where tom wins.
At the end he seems seeminglycaptures.
(20:21):
We don't know what happens, butwe see him capturing Jerry and
the little.
This is the duckling, yeah, inthat one.
So I find that to be somethingto point out to the, to those
who say it's like people arealways asking about the
roadrunner Does the coyote evercatch, you know?
Well, not really, but here's arare case where he actually is
(20:43):
getting them.
Tim Millard (20:44):
Well, I also really enjoyed the Flying Sorceress.
Jerry Beck (20:48):
I was hoping you were going to mention that one.
Yeah, with June Frey.
Yeah, june Frey is the voiceand it really uses the scope
screen in that one, more thaneven others, in my opinion,
because she's flying all overthe screen.
I mean, I, I've actually seenthat one in a theater.
In fact, we ran that one whenwe did a tribute to june after
she passed away.
(21:08):
We purposely ran that onebecause, uh, it's her doing that
classic witch hazel voice, butalso, um, uh, the fact that the
character is just all over theplace on that big screen.
It really looks cool.
Tim Millard (21:21):
Yeah, and then I really really enjoyed Blue Cat
Blues, oh yeah.
George Feltenstein (21:27):
That's a very different kind of cartoon.
Tim Millard (21:30):
Yeah, tom is the lovesick cat and Jerry is trying
to help him.
I mean, instead of the chase,you know, it just changes it up
there.
I thought that one wasfantastic.
George Feltenstein (21:41):
It added a whole other dimension to their
relationship, which I think wasvery smart of them.
Jerry Beck (21:47):
Yeah, I mean.
The thing is a lot of peoplestereotype Tom and Jerry
cartoons.
Oh yeah, the cat chases themouse, and that's really a lot
of people think that's everysingle cartoon.
There is one cartoon early,early on called Kitty Foil.
That is literally them chasingeach other for seven minutes.
That's it.
But every other one has someunique angle to it, usually a
(22:10):
story, and sometimes the storiesare bigger than that.
Whether it's Mouse in Manhattanor you know, all of them have
some unique take on them andthat's what I think also
especially makes a collection ofthem work.
They didn't design them forbeing in a collection, but they
really do work that way.
Tim Millard (22:30):
Yeah, and maybe a little bit more in the
traditional.
You know Tom chasing, jerry ismucho más, but I really enjoyed
that one I love.
Jerry is el magnifico.
I really enjoyed that one Jerryis El Magnifico.
Jerry Beck (22:42):
It's the Spanish one , yeah.
Tim Millard (22:44):
Tom, is this world champ that is brought in to
capture that one I thought wasreally fun because it's the
whole Spanish element of it too.
Jerry Beck (22:52):
That one has particularly good backgrounds in
it.
It's showing off thecountryside.
It's almost like they sent thedesigner to Spain to take
portraits and things.
It's a very beautiful lookingfilm.
Tim Millard (23:07):
Did you guys have any other favorites that you
wanted to point out?
Jerry Beck (23:10):
Oh gosh, I'm a guy who just likes everything.
I'm interested.
I love those later ones.
I don't even think the seriesever went really downhill.
There was no jumping the sharkhere.
The later, later ones have, themore're really the characters
are front and center.
They're close up.
It's all dialogue to look atthis beautiful landscape, these
(23:31):
beautiful places that they are.
And even when they're stylized,they're smart.
(24:03):
I call it smart, stylized.
It's like modern art.
It looks great.
Tim Millard (24:08):
Yeah, how about you George?
George Feltenstein (24:11):
I'm with Jerry.
I mean I, you know it's likewhich of your children do you
love the most?
You know I mean they are.
They're to be treasured becausethey represent a time and a
place that we'll never see again, just like with live action
features.
Um, you know mgm was mgm andtheir cartoon department was
(24:34):
just like.
The rest of their studio isawesome.
And you know we've talkedendlessly about tech, savory,
and we'll continue to do so andwhat Bill and Joe did with Tom
and Jerry.
At the same time, thesecartoons last forever and
they're really to be admired andadored and have a place on your
shelf that you can watchwhenever you want, Won't
(24:57):
suddenly disappear one day.
Tim Millard (24:59):
And your three bonus cartoons I thought were
just fantastic, and the Goodwillto Men speaking of lasting
forever, and I mean it's a themethat is timeless.
George Feltenstein (25:11):
Well, goodwill to Men.
As animation fans know, isactually a remake of the 1939
cartoon piece on earth which wasdone by Hugh Harmon on the, you
know, precipice of world wartwo, and Bill and Joe updated it
(25:32):
, reanimated it and brought inthe whole threat of nuclear
catastrophe, which makes it allthe more chilling and
frightening.
Especially many years later,it's still as powerful as ever.
Tim Millard (25:49):
Yeah, well, it's a fantastic collection.
I want to thank you two forpulling this together for the
fans, and I've started to seesome of the reviews and they're
coming in and they're all sayingthe same thing of how fantastic
these look and, you know, maybelike wow, this seems so obvious
.
Why didn't we do it earlier?
But it's like when you getthose releases, it means that
(26:13):
it's like touching a chord withpeople like, yes, this is a
really good one and one thatpeople I think really are going
to want to add to theircollection, because there it is,
it's so packaged so well in onedisc at a great price, as you
mentioned, george.
So I think fans are going toreally, really enjoy this.
(26:33):
Well, guys, that was a lot ofanimation to talk about.
Yeah, it's just the beginning.
Well worth it.
Yeah, but it's just thebeginning of the year.
So, uh, I know there's a lotmore.
You've mentioned, george, thatuh still coming this year.
You mentioned last year thatyou two are working on more
looney tunes that the fans haveto look forward to, and I know
(26:54):
that probably won't be too longbefore we'll hopefully have a
chance to talk with you guysabout that.
So, listeners out there, pickup these Blu-rays, because you
need to prepare yourself for theBlu-rays you're going to be
picking up in another month ortwo as well, and just enjoy
these.
They are fantastic.
(27:15):
So thanks, guys.
George Feltenstein (27:17):
Well, thank you, tim.
It's a pleasure to be with you,as always, and to be able to
talk to the folks about whatwe're cooking up.
Yes, well.
Tim Millard (27:32):
I hope you enjoyed that discussion with Jerry Beck
and George Feltenstein.
I always enjoy when they're on.
I learned so much aboutanimation history and all the
work that went into therestoration of these terrific
cartoons, these terrific shortfilms that were made for adults
and have been enjoyed for solong.
And this is the 85thanniversary of Tom and Jerry, so
(27:52):
it's a terrific time for us tobe celebrating these releases.
If you haven't yet picked upyour copy, be sure and look in
the podcast show notes for thelink, and you can purchase that
today.
If you're enjoying the podcast,please think about subscribing
or following at your favoritepodcast provider.
Until next time you've beenlistening to Tim Millard, stay
(28:14):
slightly obsessed aboutanimation.
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